Aventures lubriques (Lustful Adventures) is one of many similar clandestine offerings from the mid 1930s, redeemed only by being illustrated (or so we assume) by Chéri Herouard under the ‘Eres’ nom d’artiste.

A reprint of Aventures lubriques was published in 1953 by Jean-Jacques Pauvert in collaboration with a certain ‘Madame Françoise’, a bookseller who imported and exported clandestine literature between Belgium and France. According to Jean-Pierre Dutel in his Bibliographie des ouvrages érotiques publiés clandestinement en Français entre 1920 et 1970, this was a new edition of a pornographic novel originally published at Paris about 1938 by Maurice Duflou, called Aventures d’un Satyre, but the history of the book is confusing. At an auction at the Paris auctioneers Drouot on 11th March 1987 a copy of Aventures lubriques was offered as part of Lot 23, a book of 179 pages with no date or publisher, but with a suggested date of 1935, with the note ‘Edition originale illustrée de 8 hors-texte signés Eres; la typographie du texte semble avoir été exécutée à la machine à écrire (text produced on a typewriter).’ The original 1938 edition of Aventures d’une satyre was credited to ‘Jane de Rozat’ and had 11 anonymous coloured illustrations.

The anonymous text of Aventures lubriques is standard fare, describing a young man’s exploits in the big city; the illustrations too are nothing surprising, though Herouard’s experience (if we believe the Eres/Herouard connection) redeem the production somewhat.

Reprints of Aventures d’une satyre were prosecuted in 1950 and 1952, and reprints of Aventures lubriques were prosecuted in 1957 and 1958.